Valerie Plante can't do her French duty

I have often been a defender of Valerie Plante in our pages.

· Also read: Defense of the French: Cross swords of Legault and Plante

My defense is that, despite the challenges we face and the bad caricature some people make of it, Montreal has a reasonable direction for the future.

The Plante administration has made bold decisions since 2017, such as an express bike network, repurposing some streets for pedestrians to bring the city back to a less car-focused city, creating parks in the west and east of the city, managing the homeless…

Basically, a city is being built there primarily for residents. It's not perfect, but since Valerie Plante became mayor, the city has gotten more civil.

An attack on Montreal?

Every time many readers voice their disagreements. Directly.

Every time I see how the separation of Montreal and the region has great political efficiency.

This is a process that the Legault government has used many times, most notably in the third generation and Horne Foundry. It's easy, without actually arguing, we get to the point.

However, this week the roles were reversed.

Valerie Plante slammed the government for reforming tuition fees at McGill and Concordia for non-Quebec students and foreigners.

It would be a “direct attack” on Montreal, he said.

Attack on Montreal. Literally.

By echoing the rhetoric of the Anglo-Quebec lobby, Valérie Plante disappoints. Yes, that's right, disappointment.

With confidence or electoralism? What do I know, but in both cases there is something disappointing about the mayor's attitude toward the situation of the French in Montreal.

He is not able to fulfill his symbolic and necessary duty as a mayor.

McGill and Concordia

The Legault government isn't asking for the moon either.

It simply requires raising tuition fees for foreign students and Frenchizing them.

This is a logical public policy if we want to fight anglicization in Montreal.

McGill University is founded on a building of linguistic, historical, institutional and financial advantage.

A concrete example summarizing these benefits: To offset tuition increases, McGill funds each student's tuition in other provinces out of pocket through a $3,000 scholarship.

We wonder which French-language university can do the same.

No reply.

Despite these compensatory scholarships, McGill and Concordia will see their enrollments decline due to this policy. So the problem is not the fees, but the current franking policy.

I would never dare to say that this is a “direct attack” against French-speaking Montreal.

Politicians do politics

Don't be naive, Minister Roberge and Prime Minister Lego were happy when they attacked Mayor Plante in French.

A headless chicken is a good enemy for the government.

This allows them to be called defenders of the French against the PQ. And to respond to the mayor's criticism regarding the strike of public transport, housing and budget workers.

But in the end, we don't care about all these political considerations.

Because Valerie Plante should be a good ally to protect the French in Montreal.